Design, Upload, Earn: How to Sell Vectors, Graphics and Illustrations Online! 2024

In today’s time where everything has become digital and online, and most of the people are shifting to online jobs and freelancing rather than 9 to 5 work. Also we have so many ways to make a side income by doing simple tasks, as a designer I also tried to make some side income with my graphic design, and found there are so many ways by which a designer can make side income by doing very simple tasks in spare time, but not everyone notice them.

In this post I will share, how to sell vectors, graphics, illustrations, AI images, artworks online and make extra money, the same you can also do to make more money, we will explore where and how to sell vectors, graphics, AI images and illustrations online.

Potential of selling vectors and graphics online

As a designer you must have faced so many designs and concepts rejected by clients, have you ever thought of making money out of those rejected designs? You can refine rejected designs and upload them on stock websites, you can create new elements, icons, vectors, graphics etc whether you are an experienced or a beginner.

Many beginner designers and photographers are making good money with these stock images websites, beginner freelancers does not have too many projects at the starting stage, sometime that leads to demotivation, to overcome that situation you can create designs for your self to sell online, it will help you improve your design skills, upgrade portfolio and make extra money for your designs.

Where to sell vectors and graphics?

There are many websites where you can sell your vectors, graphics, logos, images, I will share some most popular and good paying stock images websites where I sell my graphics, some of these links may be affiliate links, that means if you join these platform through these links I may get a little amount from it.

Freepik

Freepik is a most popular marketplace for high quality design templates, mockups, vectors, graphics, posters, photography, logos, and other graphic design assets, freepik is known for its premium quality design templates, contributors can sell digital designs on freepik, whenever someone downloads your designs, Freepik pays royalty for your images.

Freepik also accepts Ai generated images on their platform, so you can also make money by selling AI images on Freepik.

Pros

• Freepik accepts, EPS, JPG, PSD file formats
• Easy and user friendly interface
• Global audience
• Performace tracking- Track performance of your sales, earnings reports in detailed way.
• Ai images- Freepik accepts Ai generated artworks, You can monetize Ai generated Artworks created with Mijdourney , Leonardo AI or any other AI tools.
• Event calender- Freepik has event calender, trending serces sections that suggest topics, content type to create, best performing topics, it helps you create unique and fresh designs.

Cons

• Quality control- Freepik is strict in quality of designs, if your designs do not meet the quality it may get rejected.
• Limited earning- Income depends upon the popularity of your content.
• Design approval- Approval for vectors and graphics takes 10-20 days.

Join Freepik Contributor

Shutterstocks

Shutterstock is the most popular stock image website for stock images, graphics, stock footage, it provides high quality stock images in various categories, artists can sell their designs, photography, footage on shutterstock, whenever someone purchases your design or licence your images it offers you royalty for your artworks.

Shutterstocks does not accept Ai generated images on its platform.

Pro’s

• User friendly interface– Shutterstocks has an easy and user friendly interface that can be easily accessed by any user.
• Fast design approvals– approves designs and images within 1-2 days and make your designs live on their platform for sale.
• Easy submission process– contributors can submit their designs, vectors easily on its contributor interface.
• Suggest keywords meta tags– It suggest best keywords and tags based on your images to make your designs more discoverable
• Allows a wide range of categories– Shutterstocks offers a wide range of categories that helps you diversify your portfolio.
• Larger audience– shutterstocks is available globally, it has a larger number of users, companies who download assets from shutterstocks.
• Accepts, EPS, JPG, SVG, PSD, MP4 file formats

Cons

• Does not accept AI images
• High competition- Shutterstock is most popular website for stock images and footage, it has high number of contirbutors, that leads to high competetition. it can be challanging to stand out on shutterstocks.
• Limited Earnings– Shutterstocks pays based on the subscriptions of the buyers, which may be not much for contributors, earnings may differ for images according to size and other factors.

Join Shutterstocks Contributor

Vecteezy

Vecteezy is known for vector graphics, illustrations, icons, templates, it has paid and free plans, users can download high quality templates from vecteezy for their design projects.

As a contributor you can sell vectors, logos, icons and illustrations on vecteezy, it pays royalty on each download.

Pro’s

• Vast category- Allows users to sell various categories of designs
• Creative freedom–  Contributors can sell try different themes, styles vector graphics
• Community–  offers a community, fu]forum for discussion and connection with other contributors, tutorials and guides about designs and  for the submission process.

Cons

• Limited content type– Mainly focus on vector graphics.
• Earning potential– Earning based on popularity of designs, requirement and quality of design
• High competition – as it focuses only on vector graphics, it has high competition for selling vectors and graphics.

Join Vecteezy Contributor

Adobe Stock

Adobe stock is a marketplace for high quality vectors, graphics, and photos by Adobe, Contributors can sell their artworks, Ai images, vectors, graphic design templates, it also allows you to connect your contributor account with your Behance profile, You can showcase your design templates on your behance profile, it means people can purchase your designs through behance, additionally, people can hire your for customised design directly through adobe stocks marketplace, it is interconnected with adobe apps and tools.

Pro’s

• Easy and user friendly interface
• Fast design approval– approves designs within 2-3 days
• LArge audience– have larger number of audience across the globe
• Accepts a wide range of designs–  ai images, vectors, templates.
• Competitive commission – pays competitive price for your designs

Cons

• Commission– Royalty depends on the buyers subscription plans
• Creative freedom– adobe stocks is strict for quality standards, if designs do not meet its standard then it may be rejected

Join Adobe Stock

Etsy

Etsy is the world’s most popular marketplace for selling handmade items, digital downloads, printables, graphic design templates, canva templates. If you are planning to start your own digital store to sell graphic design templates, then you must try etsy for digital items, Etsy allows you sell digital products across the globe, I have tried to sell graphic design templates like business card templates, Icons, and graphic design services etsy, and made good sales.

Pro’s

• Easy setup- Creating an Etsy store is very easy. You can set up your etsy store without having any technical or coding skills, and list your products instantly.
• Large audience– Etsy is widely popular for digital products and handmade items, it has a large number of audiences, it helps sellers to reach millions of people who trust Etsy.
• Low marketing cost- You can reach a large number of audience without spending money on advertising, Etsy promotes your designs without any charges. You can run ads at very low cost, if you want better results.
• Creative freedom- You can sell various types of digital products on it, no boundation of  styles, type of graphics from templates to ebooks, courses, services etc.
• Instant launch- Launch your products instantly, once you list your items on etsy, it will get live instantly for sale.

Cons

• Tax and listing costs- Etsy charges tax on each purchase, and .25 for each listing, ( you can get 40 free listing here )
• High competition- Etsy has high competition for digital products and graphic templates.
• Limited Customization: Etsy has limited features for customise store design and functionality, it may restrict you to match your store theme layout according to your branding.
• Dependency– Selling products on etsy demands follow the guidelines, terms and conditions of etsy

Create your Etsy store and get 40 free listings.

Tips to make more sales

Follow these simple tips to make more sales of your images, vectors and graphic templates on stock images websites.

High-quality design-

Produce high quality, clean and well composed designs, avoid using cluttered designs, too many colours, keep simple. For images use high quality images, or upscale images before uploading.

Diversify portfolio-

Try different categories, styles, themes to create your designs, it will help you understand what works best for you and the demands of the people.

Follow trends-

Always keep updated with design trends, market requirements, You can use calendars, trending searches on freepik platform, or google trends.

Optimize images-

Make sure your images are optimized for SEO for better search results, write proper titles, meta tags for the designs.

Avoid using copyrighted content-

Do not upload content copied from another designs or content that includes any copyrighted elements such as logos, people etc

Consistency-

Keep uploading content consistently, it will help you reach more people and make your designs discoverable.

Promote on social media-

Promote your designs on your social media pages, create content related to your catagory and niche on platforms like pinterest, Instagram etc, Use link in bio tools like Beacons and upload your products on it, ( Beacons is a Ai powered link in bio app that allows you create stunning no code website, list your links, products on it for free. )

Utilise marketplaces effectively-

You can upload the same design on various platforms, it means you can sell the same design on multiple platforms, If you are selling design and images as “exclusive” then you can not sale it on mutliple platforms.

Monitor performance-

Keep updated with performance of your sales, analyse your perfromace, what designs are getting more sales, make designs around that topic, make collection of designs, like icon collection, vector collection for specific categories.

Final thoughts

Utilize these platforms to make a side income as a designer or a photographer, sell unused vectors, illustrations and artworks, use AI tools to create images and sell them on stocks image websites, Let us know which is your favourite platform or where do you sell your graphics? Also, check out these free Ai tools for graphic designers to boost your design game, enhance productivity.

FAQ: Sell vector, Graphics, Illustrations Online